We've all said "Xbox, stop making that red flashing sign" to no avail
You're saving the planet
"Xbox, Dashboard. Xbox, Kinect. Xbox, turn off." That last voice command doesn't work and probably won't, as Kinect project manager Alex Kipman explained on Major Nelson's podcast this week.
The reason the company doesn't allow you to turn your machine on or off with the sensor is very simple: it would mean your 360 takes too much power whilst on standby, and Microsoft doesn't like that idea.
It's for saving energy. For you to say 'Xbox, turn on,' that means that some amount of the system needs to be on. So we decided not to allow you to have 'Xbox on' which you know, in this world, means we also then don't allow you to say 'Xbox off,' because if you allow it to say 'off' you would expect to be able to say 'on.'
Of course, being able to turn your machine on with just your voice would save us the energy of actually walking over to the thing and pushing the button but hey, we're hippies at heart too, so we'll just go with it.
User Comments
1. King_Boo
24 Nov 2010, 23:37 GMT
in other words, it would most likely overheat and red ring without it even being on.
2. Ria
25 Nov 2010, 15:42 GMT
I like how we're burning calories when we use the Kinect, but we're still too lazy to walk over to the darn machine. God bless America!
3. G-MaxiMillion
26 Nov 2010, 10:28 GMT
So what if we said "Xbox, explode"? Will my sensor get that and use all the energy it has to command?
4. Magi
30 Nov 2010, 12:58 GMT
funny stuff Ria.
Still, I could deal with "Off" even if it didn't "On". What's the big deal?
5. kalo
17 Dec 2010, 17:04 GMT
Thats a really poor reason, you still could have had XBOX:OFF, they must think we are idiots to accept power saving... the thing is on constantly anyway, and they know it, just because no shiny green light doesnt mean they are not watching you!